THIS is with reference to the report ‘Ministry declines permission to relocate WWI memorial’ (Feb 2) regarding the relocation of a World War I memorial within a new Defence Housing Authority (DHA) scheme in Islamabad.

The memorial is one of about 40 that I have physically located across Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) over the last more than a decade as a member of a committee of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

This particular memorial had already been vandalised, with the embedded memorial slab having been removed. When I became aware of the threat to this memorial a year ago, and talked to the officer in charge of developing the housing scheme, its base was reinforced to protect it from erosion. However, I was saddened to see the conditions now created for the entire edifice to collapse.

These memorials have not been labelled as ‘protected monuments’ under the Antiquities Act 1975, and probably do not appear in the revenue record that the Department of Archaeology and Museums is seeking.

Instead of waiting for the revenue record, which probably does not exist, would it not have been better for the said ministry to issue a no objection certificate (NOC) for what I truly consider was, and is, a reasonable offer by the housing society?

Syed Ali Hamid
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2026